John Thottungalhttps://johnthottungal.com
Medical Student Year 1Sun, 29 Nov 2015 07:19:06 +0000en
hourly
1 http://wordpress.com/https://secure.gravatar.com/blavatar/62b828e2d67e31751fe66d6268593d00?s=96&d=https%3A%2F%2Fs0.wp.com%2Fi%2Fbuttonw-com.pngJohn Thottungalhttps://johnthottungal.com
A glabella and wamble- creative writing exercise #creativewriting #writingexercisehttps://johnthottungal.com/2015/11/29/a-glabella-and-wamble-creative-writing-exercise-creativewriting-writingexercise/
Sun, 29 Nov 2015 07:19:06 +0000http://johnthottungal.com/?p=332Continue reading A glabella and wamble- creative writing exercise #creativewriting #writingexercise]]>His glabella furrowed in the rain. He stood there waiting after it had stopped, the petrichor causing his columella nasi to twitch. The humidity in the air formed dew drops at the tips of his frayed aglets. Inside the bar, he saw the barms on the beer glasses at the bar slowly fizzle away as he waited with wambles in his stomach sounding like a vagitus. The box tent from a pizza box floated away in the water perilously close to his minimus. Tinnitus ears blasted as if the sounds came from tines of the forks inside were singing vocables. A couple in their thirties smiled as their agraffe popped into the air, the sound causing an interrobang from the remaining patrons. All he cared about was overmorrow, but tonight, he waited his torn armscye dripping away in the rain. They signed their griffonage, dotted their tittle on the receipt and walked away hardly noticing his crapulent personage hovering by the vent. He loved her to the point, where the image of her in the pink lehngha brought phosphenes to his eyes. Tomorrow, he would not suffer from dysania, for he would not sleep till he made his last sale, to sell his soul for her, for her happiness while his own suffocated like a foot in a brannock device tightening its unyielding grip. She never knew and thats how the story ended forever.
http://www.utsavfashion.com/lehenga/pink-net-lehenga-choli-with-dupatta/lyq11-itemcode

Oh yeah, do check out the website in the photo, great place to buy authentic Indian clothing.

Yes, I wrote the word ‘Chimera’, the same word used in the movie Mission Impossible II. In the movie, ‘Chimera’ is a bioterrorism agent that becomes active when two viral agents come together.

By definition, the word Chimera refers to a Greek mythological animal composed of parts from different animals.

Chimera research on a genetic level that has been closely scrutinized by the NIH and with good reason. Any research involving the use of human stem cells has to be regulated strictly for scientific and ethical reasons.

While ethics may be seen as a hinderance by some towards scientific advancement, it is important to have it nonetheless. Remember the South Korean scientist who claimed he had clones humans couple of years ago and it was found out later that he had falsified his data along with erroneous practices in data collection, well, now he is cloning dogs for $100,000 at his institute.

The NIH is worried about what could happen on an ethical level if two rats or mice carrying a human embryo and sperm cells in a laboratory mate by mistake resulting in a human embryo being formed inside of a female rat.

Wait, what? Yes, scientists in an effort to get other species to grow human organs for transplant patients have been experimenting genetically to get human stem cells to grow inside a rat. Imagine, if you had an unlimited source of human stem cells that do not need to be harvested from humans which circumvents every legal loophole, but allows for millions of humans to fix and cure diseases or have organs at your disposal for transplants.

Yes, absolutely the intentions are great, but what will happen if one mistake is made and a human embryo grows by mistake inside a rat. This is a possibility that the NIH wants to absolutely avoid.

Let me give you an example of the possible benefits. Human stem cells can grow into any human cell given the right genetic signals.

Possible human stem cell applications

This in essence, if you can afford it, is the eternal fountain of youth. Your own stem cells being grown for you in another animal, ready to be used when you need to harvest them for an extra liver or kidney or heart. No immune reactions leading to organ rejection from your body because the genetic code is the same.

For me, I would want my own human stem cells to be turned into young neurons which have a higher degree of plasticity granting me the intelligence from 20 years ago.

Then my goal achieving fluency in 9 languages using Rosetta stone will take much lesser time.

Imagine!!!!! But, one must remember that with every great idea, there are possibly a lot of pitfalls which calls for ethicists and scientists along with law makers to get together and regulate.

Lest, we decide to play Icarus and race towards the sun and then fall down,

Lest, an accident happens and that Greek mythological creature becomes a reality.

Chimera, no chimera, there is always a monster lurking in us that begs to come out in a reality where there are no rules and that is a world that can become real if agencies like the NIH did not regulate.

From the scientific viewpoint, there are so many strategies in place to prevent mistakes and they too should be given a voice.

Well, there is a new talent in town in the fight against cancer – Transcription Activator Like Effector Nuclease or TALEN. Yes, this is a part of the struggle to fix cancer at a cellular level rather than bombard the body with dangerous chemicals designed to kill the cancer cells which unfortunately have serious side effects as they kill healthy surrounding cells as well in the process. Earlier I talked about CRISPR being a precise genome editing process. Part of the gene editing process is creating cuts in the DNA and TALENs are very good at inducing neat double stranded cuts.

One year old Layla, has become the first according to reports to be treated with TALENs that allowed her cancer cells to be modified enough to stop them from being protected. Once the protection was gone, her own immune system woke up and killed cancer cells. The rare form of acute lymphoblastic leukemia was so severe that even chemotherapeutics was not enough. So how do you kill a cell that does not die on its own, you change its DNA :), with designer cells!!!

That said, it is the month of November, or Movember, an awesome charity helping to raise money for men’s health with respect to testicular and prostate cancer. So grow that moustache and help raise awareness and do donate

Imagine my surprise last night, when I saw a healthy dose of neuroscience specifically neuroanatomy in the latest installment of the #007 franchise. The movie had a limited release last night with it playing at all theaters in America today. The reviews are already out, so I am not in much danger of ruining the plot for anyone, and I will try my best not to.

Imagine your world if your brain was functioning normally in every aspect except for facial recognition. You don’t recognize anyone and everyone is a stranger to you even though you see them and interact with them.

Fusiform gyrus

Now, in the movie, a menacing drill goes into Bond’s head, with the evil head of Spectre literally bringing a new meaning to the sentence,” I am the man in your head.” He wanted to punish Bond by taking away his ability to remember faces, a horrible punishment if your memories of people in your life are important to you.

Then again, there are probably some faces you would like to forget, but that has deep implications on moral and ethical level. Other movies that dealt with this subject include Jim Carrey’s Eternal Sunshine of the spotless mind.

So, the question is as we get closer each day to understanding the brain at a deeper level is, do we want the ability to control our memories?

It is an important area of research in PTSD, to prevent the harmful effects of really traumatic memories.

The sickening feeling you feel in your stomach when you suddenly see a picture of your ex or someone who hurt you deeply is a physiological reaction coming from the brain because of the association of terrible memories with the image or person.

Traumatic memories whether you would like to admit it or not, do shape us and affect us deeply at our sub conscious level.

Now, back to the movie :), I cannot tell you if the needle went exactly in the right place or what happens next but do go check out the movie.

Spectre (2015) first show
]]>jthottungalFusiform gyrusSpectre (2015) first showCancer fighting viruses, Water on Enceladus, Bionic robots #researchsaves #virus #cancer #science #future #space #bionicshttps://johnthottungal.com/2015/10/29/cancer-fighting-viruses-water-on-enceladus-bionic-robots-researchsaves-virus-cancer-science-future-space-bionics/
Thu, 29 Oct 2015 16:47:52 +0000http://johnthottungal.com/?p=238Continue reading Cancer fighting viruses, Water on Enceladus, Bionic robots #researchsaves #virus #cancer #science #future #space #bionics]]>The world, well, North America woke up to two things in the media today. The possibility of water and the right conditions for life on Enceladus, a moon of Saturn and approval by the FDA on the cancer fighting virus produced by the pharmaceutical company Amgen. Has the future really arrived? I think so.
Robot assisted physiotherapy from REX Bionics. Hands free Robotic Device for Rehabilitation

Before we go to space, here on Earth in Dallas, the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine held its annual conference showcasing the latest research in the field. I had a chance to check it out yesterday at the Hilton Anatole, today is the last day to go see some of the coolest innovations. I was particularly impressed by the Robot assisted Physiotherapy device from Rex Bionics. Another company doing very well with its sophisticated yet affordable wheel chairs was Numotion. The representative talked about how the company strives to get their products covered by the various medical insurance companies, changing lives for those patients who are not able to move around. The conference also featured exciting research from universities in Canada, India and USA.

While robots are being designed to help disable people move, there are also robots being made out of viruses to i.e. being designed for a specific purpose.Using viruses, to be more specific, modified viral vectors in research is not anything new. Viral vectors have been used to knockdown genes for a very long time now. Laboratories using shRNA, siRNA, miRNA usually had viral vectors delivering these molecules to the target cell.

So it really was only a matter of time before academic and pharmaceutical research laboratories would figure out a way to design virus cells to hunt down cancer cells. Check out some very cool photos of Herpes Simples viruses here.

If you think about it, what is a virus really doing? It is delivering a piece of genetic information in the form of DNA or RNA to the host cell, which then uses it to make more viral particles for the virus. The specificity of viruses with respect to the cells it can attack are very precise. This makes it ideal to design a virus that hunt cancer cells with a very high level of precision. Once the virus infects the cancer cell, according to Amgen, it invokes an immune response in addition to breaking the infected cell apart. I mean at the end of the day, a virus really is a piece of genetic information with a layer of protective coat which can come in many forms.

An electron microscope image of a T-cell

Well, when the boys in blue i.e. the Immune system wakes up and finds a way to kill the cancer cells it makes it a way better option than using cancer therapeutics which also do the job of killing the cancer cell but has a wide range of side effects. This article is no way intended to put down the decades of research that has been done to create Cancer medications but I am hoping that Amgen will be able to see this to fruition and also reduce the $60,000 price tag.

There are astrobiologists that believe that life originated on Mars or somewhere else in the Universe and biomolecules may have arrived on Earth on meteors that crashed into earth. Imagine viral particles with genetic information encased in ice on a meteor that crashes on to earth and gets released into the environment. Science fictions- perhaps but not entirely impossible.

NASA has now moved Enceladus, a moon of Saturn to be one of its top choices for conditions for life to exist in the universe. Cassini, the spacecraft orbiting the moon has made a dive into Enceladus to take pictures from just 30 miles above its surface. They have detected organic molecules, water in the form of a hidden ocean, so if the command let there be life is going to happen, it is very likely it will be here on Enceladus.

We are finally getting there with research done by so many dedicated professionals all adding to the compendium of human knowledge advancing us, rushing us to a bold future. Imagine, a space ship filled with humans traveling to Mars using a new ion engine, who don’t get sick anymore because of highly targeted specific viral therapies they can inject into themselves and even a person who cannot walk can go to space with the aid of bionic robots.

So has the future arrived, yes, most definitely so #researchsaves!!!

Have a good day!!

]]>jthottungalRobot assisted physiotherapy from REX Bionics. Hands free Robotic Device for RehabilitationPlease check out Numotion.com for more information. Diagram of Herpes simplex virus particle structure. Click on photo to go to link.An electron microscope image of a T-cellA new ion engine, a Hall thruster being researched to take us to Mars for a fraction of the fuel it would normally take.http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/apl/107/17/10.1063/1.4932196photo credit: A prototype wall-less Hall thruster firing in a vacuum chamber. CNRS/LAPLACE and CNRS/ICAREPsychology majors and psychologists are absolutely vital. #ThisPsychMajor #researchsaveshttps://johnthottungal.com/2015/10/28/psychology-majors-and-psychologists-are-absolutely-vital-thispsychmajor-researchsaves/
Wed, 28 Oct 2015 21:06:00 +0000http://johnthottungal.com/?p=235Continue reading Psychology majors and psychologists are absolutely vital. #ThisPsychMajor #researchsaves]]>Being a very molecular and genetics sort of science nerd, I have always sought to answer questions concerning the brain and its manifestation i.e. our behavior, choices and perceptions from that view point. While neuroscience is paramount to answering questions at the molecular level, it is absolutely vital to have individuals who are able to statistically study behavior and other outward characteristics of individuals and populations and come up with brilliant correlations and theories.

That is where the psych major comes in, especially one who chooses to study it further at a graduate level and pursue research in the field, or those who choose to practice it in its various professions such as a counseling, clinical and many more.

Even an undergraduate degree in psychology gives graduates the tools necessary to work in many fields that can directly use their skill set to enhance their productivity and work environment.

Jeb Bush, click on photo to see the original Washington Post article and photographer info.

So, while I consider myself more on the molecular side of things and in the future, even on the clinical side, I stand with my colleagues in the field of psychology, whom I recognize to play a very VITAL role in understanding the human brain from a macromolecular level. So while words like NMDA turn me on, I don’t really have the tools to study behavioral patterns at a much larger level in a population.

The study of receptors are a part of molecular neuroscience, neurochemistry, neuropharmacology etc.

It is only when different individuals such as neuroscientists, psychiatrists and psychologists work together, can we as a society take more steps to prevent tragedies that plague this nation such as mass shootings that seem to take place here more than any other country in the G8. Imagine what would have happened had any of those shooters gotten help from a therapist, how many lives would have been saved. As for Jeb Bush, well, one shouldn’t try to change his opinion, because if in fact there is some truth to a psychology major not being able to find a job, then he should look into creating employment opportunities or increase funding for graduate schools so more psychology grads can pursue higher studies.

#ThisPsychMajor can help!!

]]>jthottungalThe study of receptors are a part of molecular neuroscience, neurochemistry, neuropharmacology etc.Rumi and Neuroscience #faith #researchsaves #neuroscience #Rumi #sciencehttps://johnthottungal.com/2015/10/27/rumi-and-neuroscience-faith-researchsaves-neuroscience-rumi-science/
Tue, 27 Oct 2015 00:37:12 +0000http://johnthottungal.com/?p=227Continue reading Rumi and Neuroscience #faith #researchsaves #neuroscience #Rumi #science]]>Poetry repairing damaged nerves, whatever can that mean? A neuroscientist attempting to make the old neuron young again, what do they have in common?
Neurons in a neural network. Click on photo to see image from the original blog post.

Nothing really as they differ very much in their approach and therein lies the conflict. Or is there really a conflict between one’s spiritual faith and faith in the rigor of science?

“I have lived on the lipof insanity, wanting to know reasons,knocking on a door.

It opens.I’ve been knocking from the inside.”- Rumi

Karen Cavanaugh, can now walk, well, walk and whirl. An accident six years ago found her waking up in the hospital to the abysmal news that she would never walk again from her team of physicians. The article talks about a verse of poetry that she remembered while in the hospital that lead her to strongly believe that she would be able to walk again. She followed the verse of poetry from the mystical Persian poet Rumi in an attempt to understand more about him and discovered ‘Sufism’, a mystical branch of Islam. Despite the sad prognosis, she is now able to walk and whirl. Click on her name to read the original Huffington post article.

Sunil Gandhi, a neurobiologist and his team, at the University of California Irvine, published a study in the journal The Neuron, that shows the possibility of restoring plasticity to the brain to repair blindness in adult mice. He did this transplanting embryonic GABA inhibitory neurons into the visual cortex of the adult mouse. What is GABA you might ask?

Well, it is a neurotransmitter that is responsible in most cases for inhibitory responses and any neuron whose main output is GABA is known as a GABAergic neuron.

In both stories, the end goal is to get neurons to fire again, to restore the connection that was once lost. For Karen, it was to get her brain to speak again to her legs through the damaged nerves that contain thousands of neurons. She was able to do so through her spiritual faith according to the article.

For Gandhi, he is attempting to restore the ‘plasticity’ of old/damaged neurons by replacing them with young ones to restore the integral network in the visual cortex, thereby restoring visual perception for the adult mouse. He was able to do so, using the best of scientific techniques available to his neurobiology team.

Can you really argue that both people don’t have the same level of faith or belief in what they hold to be true?

Cogito, ergo sum, different directions leading to the same goal. In the end, we are what we believe or think to be true, said Descartes a greek philosopher at a time when religious or spiritual faith and science were both involved in the pursuit of truth.

Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī

So, if you are banking on spiritual faith for healing, it is a powerful force and I can’t as a person of science argue against something I cannot see or measure, but, for the rest, rest assured, you have neuroscientists and doctors all working together to figure out what we can’t see deep inside our wonderful brain.

As a child, we used to return to the city of Trichur, in Kerala, India every summer to stay with my grandparents. The Trichur(Trissur) zoo holds a special place in my heart and memories for two reasons, the crocodile that I would never see and the king cobra that would never move. I remember running to the crocodile pond and staring down into the green algae filled pond to see the crocodile each year but I never saw it. One summer, I fancied I saw a shoe floating in the water and imagined the poor soul to whom the show belonged to. The reason why I probably never saw the crocodile was because it was usually submerged under the green still water with only its eyes sticking out and from a height of 50 feet, it was hard to spot two dots in the murky green water. Twenty years later, scientists now in the Journal of Experimental Biology have found out conclusively that crocodiles can sleep with one eye open and by extension one half of their brain active while the other half sleeps.

Why?

Well, unless you live with immature room mates who like to walk in while you are sleeping as a prank, then you don’t really need to keep one eye open as the old adage goes. However, for animals, the cost of sleeping fully is a very steep one as they could fall prey to predators or on the other side of the equation, loose potential prey.

To understand how difficult this is, try, sleeping with your eyelids on one eye open. Yes, it is very difficult for us- Homo sapiens, keeping the eyelids open forcefully will cause our eyes to dry out without being able to blink.

Crocodiles can and they can actually regulate the amount of activity their open eye can process depending on the type of environment the paper says. Put a human in the vicinity and that one eye is more active while the other one sleeps, constantly keeping a vigilant ‘eye’ on the human threat. Why is this important to us? Well, for a neuroscientist, it tells us just how much the brain can adapt to help a species in its environment.

Yes, their brains cannot derive multivariable calculus equations like mine can, but hey, they can sleep with one eye open, a very cool adaption which makes them the king of their environment like I am in calculus class.

Yes, they grow up to 18 feet and carries enough venom to kill an elephant. Click on the photo to learn more.

The king cobra, well thats another post about the conservation of energy in cold blooded reptiles, I swear, I thought it was made of rubber because it never moved.

Have a good day

]]>jthottungalYes, they grow up to 18 feet and carries enough venom to kill an elephant. Click on the photo to learn more.Oct 21st 2030. Alien superstructure and back to the future. #deathstar #starwars #alien #backtothefuture #sciencehttps://johnthottungal.com/2015/10/21/oct-21st-2030-alien-superstructure-and-back-to-the-future-deathstar-starwars-alien-backtothefuture-science/
Wed, 21 Oct 2015 21:18:43 +0000http://johnthottungal.com/?p=218Continue reading Oct 21st 2030. Alien superstructure and back to the future. #deathstar #starwars #alien #backtothefuture #science]]>The DeLorean rushed through time and Marty McFly arrived in the future on Oct 21st 2015, thirty years from 1985.

The world he saw was vastly different from the one he was used to. The movie made predictions in 1985 about what 2015 would look like and it is interesting to point out that even for us today on Oct 21st 2015, we would look to the future 30 years from now and wonder how much our lives would have changed. What that really means, for a lot of people is how much our lives would change with innovation in technology.

So as a first, I am asking readers to post comments as to what they think the future will look like, what changes do you expect science and the society it serves to make?

Maybe, it will have a lot to do with this piece of news creating a lot of buzz in the astronomy world recently. Perhaps the greatest thing we can all look forward to is the participation of all ‘citizens’ in scientific endeavors. Scientific American in their article aptly points out how this superstructure would not have been found by computer algorithms but by citizen scientists working together peering over thousands of images from the Kepler telescope.

Science and technology will be changing our lives even as I write this post, what will it be like on Oct 21st 2030? I will be exactly 65 years old and a day but other than that, it is all up to our imagination and scientific innovation

What does a being a Soprano and surgery on the Rectus abdominus have anything to do with each other?

A lot actually.

Your 6 or 8 pack

The beautiful soprano singing the Domine Deus from Poulenc’s Gloria requires her abdominal muscles to maintain breath support for not only the sustained high notes, but phonation for all pitches; it is not all about just training the vocal folds. Singing at a professional level requires discipline in breathing, and muscle control. Muscle control you say? Yes, the abdominal muscles are needed to precisely control the negative pressure created by the diaphragm to control breathing. Inspiration and exhalation have a whole new meaning in this context

What happens if surgery is done on the rectus abdominis, or any other muscle associated with breathing?

After a muscle is surgically cut, it is instantly weaker due to the need for healing. During the healing process, an incised muscle cannot immediately be used with the same force as it had been used prior to surgery. It must first heal, and then gradually recover its strength, and coordination capabilities. These effects inevitably will be imposed on the singer’s ability to produce phonation at the same caliber as they had before. This is not to say, that the singer will be forever unable to perform, but just as all people who undergo surgery, the singer will require a recovery period, time for strengthening and a relearning of proper use and coordination of both the inspiratory and exhalatory muscles needed for singing. Sadly, it is clear to see that in this time of healing and recovery, given that there are no surgical complications, the singer will be greatly affected.

However, if you sing like I do at Karaoke, nothing will save you, but for a professional singer, it is important to work with the surgeons to minimize recovery time and even something as simple as intubation during surgery has to be carefully looked into because of possible damage to the vocal chords. Research by surgeons into better minimally invasive techniques using the latest tools and technology available ensures that there is nothing to sing about when it comes to a bad recovery.

Sing I say, sing away

Satsriyakal

Note: Special thanks to Nereida García for help with editing and use of her youtube video, be sure to check her channel out.